Friday, August 31, 2012

"Seeing is believing," the saying goes, but we also believe in many things that we've never seen, and things that can be seen only indirectly. What are a few of the things that play an important role in your life, even though you've never seen them?

Thursday, August 30, 2012

"Out of sight, out of mind" is a folk saying that tells us we rely on our eyes to keep track of things. It's easy to forget about something invisible, no matter how important it is. What are some everyday examples of visible reminders that help you remember the things you have to do? What do you do to make your important priorities more visible?

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

If a friend loses weight, that's a healthy change that is easy to see. If they stop smoking, that might be just as significant an improvement, but it doesn't show up in photographs. What's an example of the latter kind of change, either in yourself or someone else — an improvement that makes a real difference, but can't necessarily be seen at a glance?

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Sometimes don't need anyone to say "thank you"; you just want to make sure things work out well. What are some things that you do, quietly or even secretly, to help out your community, your employer, or the people around you?

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Tell us about a time when you set out shopping with a clear idea of what you wanted to buy, but ended up with something quite different. What did you originally have in mind? What did you end up buying? And what happened that made you change your plans?

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Sometimes the key to developing a skill is knowing someone who has already mastered that skill—whether or not they take the role of teacher. What is one of your skills that you can definitely link to a specific person in your life?

Monday, August 20, 2012

The demands of our daily lives prompt us to continually improve one skill or another, and at the same time our personal interests and ambitions also push in that direction. What are some of the skills that you've improved in the last year or two?

In most of those cases, did you consciously plan and practice to improve your skills (for example, signing up for a class) or did it happen naturally in the course of events (for example, handling a new responsibility at your job)?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

How much control do you have over what you eat? Do you sometimes end up eating
things that you don't particularly like, or that you know are unhealthy,
because you have to work with a limited range of choices?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

If a camera recorded your most recent meals, what would the scene look like? Do you typically eat by yourself, or with other people? Are meals a time of conversation? Do you combine eating with watching TV, checking e-mail, reading, or any other activity?

Friday, August 10, 2012

On the Happiness Project blog, Gretchen Rubin details a phenomenon called drift, which might be described as a slippery way of being stuck. How many of these warning signs of drift apply to you?

Do you complain about a situation without taking action to change things?Do you feel passively carried along by circumstances that are being guided by other people or processes?Do you say to yourself "This can't go on" -- but it does go on anyway?Do you secretly hope that some external force will come along to "blow up" a situation and stop the course of events?

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Think of a few different times in your life when you had felt stuck and then managed to get unstuck. In each of those cases, what ingredient made the critical difference that got you moving again? Did you follow the same pattern every time you got yourself unstuck, or was it different every time?

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

What is your typical response to being stuck? Do you wait and hope for things to change? Do you try harder and harder, hoping to break free? Do you try lots of different things, hoping that you will chance upon something that works?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Has a dream ever warned you to steer clear of possible danger? Have you ever had a dream that showed you the solution to a problem? Tell us about a time when you changed your plans or did something different based on what a dream seemed to be telling you.

Friday, August 3, 2012

In your teenage years, which was a bigger part of your landscape: the opportunities and potential of your future, or the constraints and limitations of your circumstances? Which occupied your thoughts more: figuring out your life direction, or getting past your immediate difficulties and obstacles?

Thursday, August 2, 2012

For some people, high school graduation is the biggest event to anchor memories of their teen years. Other people might pick a time when they moved from one city to another, started their first job, or began an important relationship. What was the single most pivotal event in your adolescence?

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

When you think about your adolescent years, what is the emotional tone of your memories? For example, are they happy, nostalgic memories, or is painful or stressful for you today to think about that time in your life?

What if someone interviewed you over a period of thousands of hours, asking you every question you could imagine and many you couldn't? Through the course of the interview process, you would gain a keen understanding of yourself. You would end up with a comprehensive portrait of not only your surface thoughts, but also your deeper inner wisdom and insights. You would learn your whole story.

With a question a day, this blog is your interviewer.

We'll ask one new question here every day. Whether you're already on a journey of self-inquiry and transformation, or just starting, or simply want to begin a journal about yourself and your thoughts, your own answers to these questions will help you write the story of you.

There are ten thousand questions, and any one of them could turn your life in a new direction.